Apple makes its intent on the battery fiasco clear. And not in the way it wanted.

As a longtime fan of Apple products and the company's mastery of marketing strategy, I was initially in Apple's corner when it confirmed that it had been deliberately slowing down older iPhones. It was the only way to halt a much worse problem, name...

As a longtime fan of Apple products and the company's mastery of marketing strategy, I was initially in Apple's corner when it confirmed that it had been deliberately slowing down older iPhones. It was the only way to halt a much worse problem, namely that the devices would periodically shut down without notice. This all happened because the batteries would weaken over time.

But when Apple issued it's "apology" on Thursday (Dec. 28), it went so far out of its way to avoid the actual issue that it killed any sympathies I had. Indeed, that "apology" made the case better than anything else that this all indeed had been a marketing scheme to push upgrades/sell more phones. I have to assume that Apple's best marketing minds had checked out for the holidays when this note was crafted.